scholarly journals Character Customization With Cosmetic Microtransactions in Games: Subjective Experience and Objective Performance

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Böffel ◽  
Sophie Würger ◽  
Jochen Müsseler ◽  
Sabine J. Schlittmeier

Free games that are monetized by selling virtual items, such as cosmetic microtransactions for one’s avatar, seem to offer a better gaming experience to paying players. To experimentally explore this phenomenon, the effects of character customization with cosmetic microtransactions on objective and self-estimated player performance, subjective identification with the avatar, fun and the players’ perceived competence were examined in the game League of Legends. This study introduces a new laboratory-based, experimental task to objectively measure within-game player performance. Each participant performed this game-based task in two different conditions: With a character that was customized using a provided set of cosmetic microtransactions and with a default character. Results showed that customization increased subjective identification with the player character. However, objective performance measures were unaffected by this manipulation although the novel experimental approach provided reliable performance results. Additionally, identification was positively related to perceived competence, fun, and self-estimated performance. Implications for the design of cosmetic microtransactions and their influence on competitive gaming are discussed.

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory N. Stock ◽  
Kathleen L. McFadden

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between patient safety culture and hospital performance using objective performance measures and secondary data on patient safety culture. Design/methodology/approach Patient safety culture is measured using data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Hospital performance is measured using objective patient safety and operational performance metrics collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Control variables were obtained from the CMS Provider of Service database. The merged data included 154 US hospitals, with an average of 848 respondents per hospital providing culture data. Hierarchical linear regression analysis is used to test the proposed relationships. Findings The findings indicate that patient safety culture is positively associated with patient safety, process quality and patient satisfaction. Practical implications Hospital managers should focus on building a stronger patient safety culture due to its positive relationship with hospital performance. Originality/value This is the first study to test these relationships using several objective performance measures and a comprehensive patient safety culture data set that includes a substantial number of respondents per hospital. The study contributes to the literature by explicitly mapping high-reliability organization (HRO) theory to patient safety culture, thereby illustrating how HRO theory can be applied to safety culture in the hospital operations context.


Author(s):  
Steven Earnshaw

Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano places the committed drinker, in the form of ex-Consul Geoffrey Firmin, in the Mexican ‘Day of the Dead’ festival, so that the main character encounters ‘hell’ in physical and spiritual dimensions. The novel is technically innovative in its aim to register the subjective experience of the Existential drinker: Geoffrey Firmin’s world is constructed through a highly-individualised, expressionistic symbolism, a mid-century representation of the modern, alienated self, abandoned and suffering despair in a Godless world – the latter made evident by the novel’s attention to the rise of totalitarianism, which forms the backdrop to the events here on a day close to the onset of World War II. There is discussion of the novel’s difficulty and form, and a comparison of some aspects of the novel with Kafka’s The Trial, and how these relate to representation of the Existential drinker.


Author(s):  
Tracy M. Maylett

This case study describes an initiative to change a long-standing performance management process at a large manufacturing facility within General Mills that emphasized the attainment of objective performance measures (the “what” of performance) to one that also included the “how” of goal achievement. The organization embarked on a 3-year pilot evaluation of the use of 360 Feedback as a possible solution to replace or supplement their traditional single-source (supervisor) performance appraisal process. The two systems ran in parallel using 140 randomly selected employees. Results showed little correlation between the what measures of performance from the traditional appraisals and the how data collected using the 360 Feedback, supporting the view that job performance should be viewed as requiring both aspects of evaluation, using different methods of assessment. Ultimately, the organization maintained both systems but integrated 360 Feedback into the traditional appraisals as well, creating complementary processes that looked “forward” (development) and “past” (performance).


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Binh Bui ◽  
Thu Phuong Truong ◽  
Ellie J. Chapple

Purpose This study aims to understand the organisational benefits of carbon-focussed management control systems (carbon MCS) under a regulatory context. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a survey of 85 New Zealand (NZ) organisations covering different industries, sizes and compliance obligations. Findings The results suggest a significant direct positive impact of carbon MCS on organisations’ non-financial benefits and an indirect impact on financial benefits via non-financial benefits. The impact on non-financial benefits is strongest when a whole carbon MCS package is used rather than individual carbon controls. However, the highest impact on financial benefits are attained when only diagnostic controls are used rather than other controls or the whole MCS package. Firms in primary, manufacturing and energy sectors and those with export activities are less likely to achieve organisational benefits, while those with a compliance obligation under the emissions trading scheme are more likely to perceive such benefits. Research limitations/implications The study has a limited sample size (85 firms), a unique context (NZ) and coves only large firms. Further, there are no objective performance measures to validate survey responses regarding organisational benefits. Practical implications The findings provide a business case for managers and practitioners in formulating their strategic and MCS responses to climate change issues. Originality/value The authors focus on carbon MCS and adopt a wider range of carbon MCS levers than previous research. The authors discern not only non-financial benefits but also financial benefits from MCS use.


Author(s):  
Ying Yuan

Abstract Psychological analysis of characters in ordinary novels is mainly a qualitative analysis, which is easily affected by the researchers’ reading level, theoretical literacy, subjective experience, and other factors. With the development of computer technology and big data, stable and systematic personality can more accurately describe the psychology of text characters. This article adopts the method of literary intelligence analysis based on data mining and statistics, through the Chinese psychological analysis system, the language of the characters in the novel of ordinary world can be counted, processed, and disposed, and then obtains the big five personality prediction scores of the characters. Furthermore, the validity of the intelligent analysis method is confirmed by examining the verification of the predictive scores in the text and literature. After verification by many parties, the predicted results of this article are supported by the text and literature, which shows that literary intelligence analysis of novel characters’ personalities is effective.


Author(s):  
Laurie L. Quill ◽  
David Kancler

Armstrong Laboratory, Logistics Research Division performed an evaluation to determine whether flightline maintenance was improved by using a computerized, integrated maintenance information system (IMIS) for different types of users. The laboratory's evaluation overcame several logistical problems common to conducting research outside a laboratory setting. Such problems include obtaining representative subjects, controlling for extraneous variables, and gathering adequate sample data. The present study includes 24 maintenance technicians (12 avionics specialists and 12 crew chief non-specialists). Each subject performed 12 maintenance tasks (6 using electronic and 6 using paper presentation). Subjective workload ratings and objective performance times were measured. Subjective workload (using National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX)) and objective performance results revealed similar interactions. Using paper-based presentations, crew chiefs gave significantly higher subjective workload ratings than avionics specialists and significantly longer total performance time (e.g., time-to-complete). However, there were no significant differences between the two groups when using electronic-based presentations.


Author(s):  
P. A. Hancock ◽  
Gerald Matthews

Objective: The aim of this study was to distill and define those influences under which change in objective performance level and the linked cognitive workload reflections of subjective experience and physiological variation either associate, dissociate, or are insensitive, one to another. Background: Human factors/ergonomics frequently employs users’ self-reports of their own conscious experience, as well as their physiological reactivity, to augment the understanding of changing performance capacity. Under some circumstances, these latter workload responses are the only available assessment information to hand. How such perceptions and physiological responses match, fail to match, or are insensitive to the change in primary-task performance can prove critical to operational success. The reasons underlying these associations, dissociations, and insensitivities are central to the success of future effective human–machine interaction. Method: Using extant research on the relations between differing methods of workload assessment, factors influencing their association, dissociation, and insensitivity are identified. Results: Dissociations and insensitivities occur more frequently than extant explanatory theories imply. Methodological and conceptual reasons for these patterns of incongruity are identified and evaluated. Application: We often seek convergence of results in order to provide coherent explanations as bases for future prediction and practical design implementation. Identifying and understanding the causes as to why different reflections of workload diverge can help practitioners toward operational success.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Wong ◽  
Georg Meyer ◽  
Emma Timson ◽  
Philip Perfect ◽  
Mark White

There is interest in how pilots perceive simulator fidelity and rate self-performance in virtual reality flight training. Ten participants were trained to perform a target tracking task in a helicopter flight simulation. After training objective performance, the median tracking error, was compared to subjective self-evaluations in a number of flying conditions where the cues available to our pilots were manipulated in a factorial design: the simulator motion platform could be active or static, audio cues signalling the state of the turbine could be those used during training, non-informative, or an obviously different but informative ‘novel’ sound. We tested participants under hard and easy flying conditions. Upon completion of each test condition, participants completed a 12-statement Likert-scale with items concerning their performance and helicopter simulator fidelity. Objective performance measures show that flight performance improved during training and was affected by audio and motion cues. The subjective data shows that participants reliably self-evaluated their own performance and simulator fidelity. However, there were instances where subjective and objective measures of performance or fidelity did not correlate. For example, although participants rated the ‘novel’ turbine sound as having low fidelity, it behaviourally caused no difference with respect to the turbine sound used in training. They were also unable to self-evaluate outcome of learning. We conclude that whilst subjective measures are a good indicator of self-performance, objective data offers a valuable task-oriented perspective on simulator fidelity.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document